Author: A Better Day

“The self is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying and primeval. The self is not slain when the body is slain.” This quote from the Bhagavad-Gita (2:20) as read by Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda, a world-renowned yoga spiritual master, explains that the body’s essence—its life force particles—remain to exist long after the body’s death. This is what Jagad Guru spoke to his audience during a lecture on the topic of the existence of self.

On this deeply involved topic, Jagad Guru teaches that “a life particle is what brings matter to life, or makes matter appear like it’s alive. Matter by nature is dead and a life particle is, in essence, intrinsically alive.” Therefore, our body—made of matter—may die, but our essence lives on in the life particles that were previously wedded within the matter substance of our physical body. When our life force particles are “in connection with matter, then matter appears to be alive. But matter, by nature, is always dead.”

On the other hand, Jagad Guru proclaims, “My existence is not going to cease” upon physical death because we do not live in the matter of our body, but in the life force particles. “Life is alive. Life is life. So, I am life. I am a life particle….the body takes on its natural characteristic: dead, a dead body, when the life particle leaves it.” He explains that this is a very traditional view, varying slightly throughout different religious perspectives, but this was even a perspective held by Socrates.

This world is anything but prosperous. There’s inequality in terms of financial stability. This issue further leads to lack of education, lack of food, low living standards, etc. However, there are some very considerate people in the world who live their life to improve the condition of the society. Working for one person at a time and then making a worldly impact. WHEF is a combination of such determined souls.

World Hindu Economic Forum is an independent non-profit organization who wants to bring prosperity in the society. Their aim is to make Hindu society better by distributing surplus wealth. The organization has been working since 2010. Its headquarters are based in Delhi, Bharat, but it works all around the world with this positive intention. It was found by Y. S. Jain. The COO is Srinivas Chidumalla and the Steering Committee Convener is Arun Bajaj.

How WHEF is different

There are thousands of charities for helping the under privileged. But the one’s who get left behind are the middle class who are striving to reach somewhere in life. WHEF is the perfect platform for them. The organization brings the financially stable people of the society. This includes bankers, businessmen, economists, technocrats, traders and some thinkers too. These people provide their experience to the beginner level people.

They offer mentoring as well as resources to help those who need help for financial stability. Instead of giving money that would only last a little while, WHEF goes for the more permanent option which is to make these people capable of earning well throughout their lifetime. With help from these richer people, the talented ones get to earn well too and in the end, we have a prosperous society with surplus wealth. The seminars and conferences with this purpose are held very often.

They are conducted within India as well as in other parts of the world. The aim for this organization is to regain the lost economic strength of Hindus. There was a time when Hindus contributed up to 49% in the world economy. This is a proof that Hindus are capable of having that kind of success. The only thing needed to get back that status is some unifying platform which WHEF is offering.

The economic world isn’t in the best place all around the globe, especially in India. The people at WHEF believe that all Hindu brothers should come together. By offering whatever they have, as a whole they’ll quickly be able to get a stable point. The collective efforts are what are needed to get increased market access. Similarly, this will help get increased capital as well. Along with that, the use of technology will benefit everyone. The tech experts will provide help for those who aren’t so good with technology. Basically, the entire Hindu society will get the best outcome if they all come together to work for each other’s benefit.

Hindu Business Network (HBN)

Hindu Business Network is an organization that provides an on-line platform for the connection between entrepreneurs, businessmen and other professionals. The statement they use to explain their purpose is ‘Connections. Ideas. Opportunities.” It is pretty self explanatory. They provide the platform where anyone can come with their innovative ideas. Someone else can get inspiration or add into it. Others can suggest changes that they think will make it more practical. Someone else will pinpoint the flaws. Eventually, the interactions will help create a fool proof plan which will bring brand new opportunities.

The simplest ideas will be polished on this platform. Someone with the resources will fund it and voila! One idea from one corner of the country will find its way to the implementation. The only limitation to join this platform is to be above 18. It requires a yearly subscription. The first year is free for people who have attended the WHEF annual conference or any other event throughout the year. If you believe the WHEF concept should be supported, you are eligible for HBN.

Hindu Economic Forum (HEF)

Hindu Economic Forum works similar to WHEF. The only difference is that HEF, unlike WHEF, offers memberships. It brings together industrialists, businessmen, etc. to share innovative ideas, expertise and resources. HEF wants to ‘Grow together. Share together.’ They want to create wealth with the help of 100 hands so it can be shared among 1000 hands. Once again, the concept is to provide permanent source of success rather than offering simple donations to the underprivileged.

They want to gain economic success. With this sort if stability only will Hindu civilization be able to succeed in the world. And this cannot be achieved unless all business minded people come together. HEF wants to remove the barrier of financial support so that ideas can come together for the mere success of Hindus. It is a platform that the future generations can use for economic strength and prosperity.

Another blessed soul

Other than WHEF, there are some other considerate souls who want to solely work for the betterment of society. While they haven’t formed any organization, they’ve done some remarkable work on their own. One of these human serving souls include Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi is a truly humble person who works entirely for the people. She has been interested in this positive work since a very young age. She constantly fights for a government that is truly for the people.

When Tulsi Gabbard was two, she moved to Hawaii with her parents. There she worked closely with the two family businesses from a very young age. Meanwhile, she also completed her degree in International Business from the Hawaii Pacific University. At the age of 19, Tulsi co-founded an organization. This was called the Healthy Hawaii Coalition (HHC).

The aim of this non-profit organization was to protect the environment, provide better community health as well improve individual’s life. In short, Tulsi wanted to make the world a better place and was on the road from the start. By working in this organization, she maintained an active role in public health matters as well as in the education system. HHC carved a curriculum that was adopted by over 50 public and private schools around Hawaii.

The start of her political career

She was extraordinary from the very beginning and this is what got her to be the youngest person in the Hawaiian State Legislature at the age of only 21. She passionately used her power for the betterment of the education sector, but also did work for the tourism and economic sector. Her brave character was proven when she volunteered to go on war in Iraq. She had no pressure, she could enjoy the comfort of her home and the state Legislature but still chose to go in the field just to work for the people. This was in 2004. Her second deployment to the Middle East was in 2009.

Tulsi’s commitment to work for a better society didn’t stop here. She decided to continue her political career so that she could make use of her powerful position to make a change in the world. She went to Washington D.C in 2006. Here she served Senator Akaka as a legislative aide. Not only did she get the honor of getting mentorship from such a renowned personality, she also made an impact by suggesting on environmental and veteran affairs.

After her return from the second deployment, Tulsi gained many important positions. She became the Chair of the Safety, Economic Development as well as Government Affairs Committee. She served as Vice Chair of the Budget committee. Tulsi was also the member of Zoning and Public Works committee. She used her position to work against dengue fever, medical waste and for APEC. She was able to bring many economic opportunities for the state.

Her success didn’t stop here. In 2012, she won a seat in the US House of Representatives. She won the general election by 80 points. Tulsi became one of the only two women veteran in the House of Representatives. Other than that, she was the first ever Hindu American to have gotten a seat in the Congress. The multi race woman encouraged diversity. She worked on various platforms to do uncountable goods for the world.

Her services were used in the House Armed Services as well as in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Tulsi started her work from Hawaii but continued it in America as well. She is a true representative of leadership qualities. Her veteran services have impacted the world in a very positive way. Just in three decades of her life, Tulsi has done work for the world that can never be paid back for.

Tulsi has spoken at one of the WHEF events. She delivered a speech on the topic of “Finding Happiness and Success Through Karma Yoga”. Her inspiration definitely provided motivation for many novices. Last year, Tulsi Gabbard and US tech guru and pioneering entrepreneur/venture capitalist Gururaj “Desh” Desphande shared the stage at the 5th annual WHEF event held in Los Angeles from 18-20 November 2016.

Hundreds of Indian American and NRI professionals filled the Grand Ballroom of central Orange County’s Hotel Irvine the weekend of Nov. 18-20 to discuss ways to improve market access in India and help the nation sustain its path as a growing global player.

The theme of Tulsi Gabbard speech was “Finding Happiness and Success Through Karma Yoga”. Tulsi said Karma yoga is rooted in this understanding of Sanatan Dharma which is directly coming from supreme guru Sri Krishna. Karma meaning action, and yoga meaning in connection or union with God; in other words, karma yoga is action in loving service to God and humanity. If it turns out your business plan created wealth along the way, all the better—you can use that capital and those profits you worked so hard for in service to others.”

Tech Guru “Desh” Deshpande said “Growing up in India, there was a lot of scarcity and hardly any business, but there was an abundance of Hindu values such as respect and love.”. He went on saying “Hindu Dharma is a living thing and has an amazing ability to reinvent itself and stay relevant—it’s very entrepreneurial in a lot of ways.”

WHEF’s approach is based on the foundational wisdom in the Bhagwad Gita: “Think in future, for the future”. The Bhagavad Gita is respected by many spiritual teachers, guru and yoga masters around the world. The teachings of the Bhagavad Gita directly come from the God through a disciplic line of self realized bona-fide spiritual master.

The success of India, like any other country, depends on its people. Committed people who work for the benefit of their country are the only ones who gain ultimate success. If you think you can’t make an impact like Tulsi, you can do your part by simply attending WHEF conferences. With a spirit like Tulsi and platforms like WHEF, India will definitely gain a very high status in the world.

God, the Supreme Person, is our Best Friend. Spiritual life is relating with God, loving Him, as our very Best Friend. We are related to God eternally through a bond of kinship. He is our closest relative and the very foundation of our existence. There can be no person closer to us in an absolute sense than our Supreme Friend. However, when we come into this material dimension, we are immediately plunged into forgetfulness. Although we are eternal spiritual beings, part and parcel of the Supreme Person, when we fall under the influence of material nature, we forget our spiritual origins.

We become covered by layers of material energy that we take to be our self. Instead of knowing that we are the spiritual individual merely wearing the material clothes of the body and mind, we become convinced that we actually are these clothes. Our natural spiritual inclinations and activities become increasingly suppressed as we become more and more absorbed in the world of matter. We forget what our life was like before we entered the material world, and also do not remember our past lives within the world of matter. We even forget our relationship with very closest Friend, the topmost love of our life, God.

The depth of our forgetfulness is so severe that many of us have completely forgotten that God even exists. And among those of us that do at least remember His existence, very few remember what He is like. In such a forgetful condition, it is very difficult for us to have a close relationship with Him. We feel much closer to our parents, spouse, children, peers, even our pets, and so we spend most of our time and energy cultivating our relationships with them. Because we do not feel a deeply intimate and loving personal connection with God, we do not give this relationship priority in our lives – even though He is actually the closest Person to us.

It is not at all surprising to every one of us -we meet miseries everywhere. Starting from our bodily miseries (like disease, pain & death), miseries from economic problems, relationship, natural calamities, dangers and personal delusions etc. It would not be wrong to define all these as – “misgivings of the material nature”. This is inherent to this world. Many other similar things affect our lives as a whole, affect our peace and happiness. We feel that we cannot escape these. We continuously struggle to find an easy way out – at least temporarily.

And we often fail

Consequently, we suffer from fear, we lose faith, our hearts are hardened, we gradually lose the natural tendency to care others, we deliberately close our eyes to worldly problems to comfort ourselves and think as secure. Moreover if we focus on the larger band, we witness killings, wars, and political quagmire which spoil life of uncountable masses. In the end, we feel practically helpless.

Where are we heading to? Have we ever stopped by and thought about the real cause and the results.

We cannot experience true happiness living just for ourselves. The unnatural selfishness and ignorance has kept us away from all kinds of goodness and natural state of the heart i.e. compassion, lasting happiness and joy. In other words we have lost our hearts to artificiality & self-centeredness.

We humans have made remarkable progress ever since we have been part of this beautiful planet and it is due to this nature of ours to consistently work towards leading improved lives it has resulted into some incredible breakthroughs in several fields.

But is it always that there are only hopes for betterment and there are no complexities involved when it comes to humanity. Well, it would have been dream come true had the above mentioned statement would have been the truth, but sadly this is not the case. One term which not only brings in fear, loss of hope, destruction, loss of lives, but also has actually been a huge setback for the human developmental process is “terrorism”.

On one hand we have this wonderful inventions that help in leading a comfortable life, while on other hand there is this ugly head of terrorism which creates nothing but devastation and loss of faith in humanity.

Some personalities need very less introduction, as we start to talk about Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. House of Representatives for Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District. She’s even beyond inspiration. It won’t be wrong to describe her as a great luminary that personifies empowerment, sacrifice, willpower and selfless service.

The Amazing Tulsi Gabbard is aptly described as “A deep storehouse of personal strength and leadership qualities.”

Recently, on the event of “Bloody Sunday”, Tulsi released a statement that reminds of the great sacrifice made by African Americans 50 years back. They suffered a great degree of political injustice and civil rights inequality. They were not allowed to exercise their voting rights. In an attempt to answer this, they launched a mass movement marked by a huge public march from Selma to Montgomery to raise the attention of the then ruling authority.

As parents we all want our children to follow in the footsteps of people we can trust. We become anxious when our children make friends with the dubious neighbours or seem a little attracted to the other kids who are just not quite on the right side of the law. As they grow up we want them to become good citizens, to do the right things, to know what is acceptable and what is not.

In today’s world finding such a person or people who are the role models we hope our children will copy seems elusive. If we look at the political arena, we can see that people start out with high ideals but often become embroiled in difficulties.

Tulsi gabbard has a foundation that places service to the people and to the creation of a strong and wise society at its fore. Tulsi is one such politician that we can easily place our trust in. This wisdom comes from her longstanding commitment to the principles laid out in the Holy scripture, Bhagavad Gita followed and taught by all guru, spiritual teacher and spiritual masters worldwide.

Democracy plainly can be defined as the representative government. In other words, it means government by the people’s representatives. The citizenry choose those to represent them and their interest in government.

Another school of thought see democracy as government of the majority with the interest of the minority protected. This is to say that the group or party with the majority of votes form government but the interest of the minority is guaranteed by the constitution.